Documenti di Didattica
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Lesson One
Each part of speech explains not what the word is, but how the word is
used. In fact, the same word can be a noun in one sentence and a verb or
adjective in the next. The next few examples show how a word's part of
speech can change from one sentence to the next.
In this sentence, "walk" is a verb, and its subject is the pronoun "we".
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The town decided to build a new jail.
Here "jail" is a noun, which is the object of the infinitive phrase "to
build."
In this sentence, "cries" is a noun acting as the direct object of the verb
"heard."
The baby cries all night long and all day long.
But here "cries" is a verb that describes the actions of the subject of the
sentence, the baby.
Word categories
• NOUN
• PRONOUN
• VERB
• ADJECTIVE
• ADVERB
• PREPOSITION
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• CONJUNCTION
• INTERJECTION
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3. Indefinite: they have no specific antecedents.
Examples: another, both, everything, nothing
4. Reflexive: they show that the subject performs actions to/for
itself
Examples: myself, yourself, itself, ourselves, themselves
5. Intensive: they refer back to a noun/pronoun to add emphasis to
it
Examples: (same forms as reflexive pronouns)
6. Reciprocal: they show a mutual action or relationship
Examples: each other, one another
7. Interrogative: they are used to ask a question
Examples: who, which, what
8. Relative: they are used to introduce a relative clause
Examples: who, which, that
9. Demonstrative: they substitute for specific nouns
Examples: this, that, these, those
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3. Linking: it joins the subject with a word that renames/describes
it
Example: The sky is blue.
4. Main: it indicates the primary activity
5. Auxiliary: "helps" the main verb
6. Modal: indicates ability, obligation, permission, possibility
Examples: can, may, must, should, could, might, ought, would
7. Finite: it describes a definite and limited action or condition
8. Non-finite/Verbal: shows an unfinished action or condition
o Infinitives: to + verb; act as nouns, adjectives, adverbs
o Participles: past or present; always act as adjectives
o Gerunds: present participle form; act as nouns
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o Ordinal: Eg. third, fourth, fiftieth
o Nouns: Eg. the milk cow
o Proper: Eg. the German cow
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1.8. An overview of interjections
An interjection is an unusual kind of word, because it often stands alone.
Interjections are words which express emotion or surprise, and they are
usually followed by exclamation marks.
Examples: Ouch!, Hello!, Hurray!, Oh no!, Ha! yuk, ouch, eh .
Exercise:
Identify the part of speech of the underlined word in each of the
following sentences:
1. The clown chased a dog around the ring and then fell flat on her
face.
2. The geese indolently waddled across the intersection.
3. Yikes! I'm late for class.
4. Bruno's shabby thesaurus tumbled out of the book bag when the
bus suddenly pulled out into traffic.
5. Mr. Frederick angrily stamped out the fire that the local
hooligans had started on his verandah.
6. Later that summer, she asked herself, "What was I thinking of?"
7. She thought that the twenty zucchini plants would not be enough
so she planted another ten.
8. Although she gave hundreds of zucchini away, the enormous
mound left over frightened her.
9. Everywhere she went, she talked about the prolific veggies.
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10. The manager confidently made his presentation to the board of
directors.
11. Frankenstein is the name of the scientist, not the monster.
12. Her greatest fear is that the world will end before she finds a
comfortable pair of panty-hose.
13. That suitcase is hers.
14. Everyone in the room cheered when the announcement was
made.
15. The sun was shining as we set out for our first winter camping
trip.
16. Small children often insist that they can do it by themselves.
17. Dust covered every surface in the locked bedroom.
18. The census taker knocked loudly on all the doors but nobody
was home.
19. They wondered if there truly was honour among thieves.
20. Exciting new products and effective marketing strategies will
guarantee the company's success.
2. Word functions
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Every complete sentence contains two parts: a subject and a predicate.
The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about, while the predicate
tells something about the subject. In the following sentences, the
predicate is enclosed in braces ({ }), while the subject is highlighted.
Judy {runs}.
Judy and her dog {run on the beach every morning}.
To determine the subject of a sentence, first isolate the verb and then
make a question by placing "who?" or "what?" before it -- the answer is
the subject.
The audience littered the theatre floor with torn wrappings and
spilled popcorn.
The verb in the above sentence is "littered." Who or what littered? The
audience did. "The audience" is the subject of the sentence. The
predicate (which always includes the verb) goes on to relate something
about the subject: what about the audience? It "littered the theatre floor
with torn wrappings and spilled popcorn."
Unusual Sentences
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Be careful with sentences that begin with "there" plus a form of the verb
"to be." In such sentences, "there" is not the subject; it merely signals
that the true subject will soon follow.
There were three stray kittens cowering under our porch steps
this morning.
If you ask who? or what? before the verb ("were cowering"), the answer
is "three stray kittens," the correct subject.
2.2. Objects
Direct Object
The advertising executive drove a flashy red Porsche.
Direct Object
Her secret admirer gave her a bouquet of flowers.
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indirect object, isolate the verb and ask to whom?, to what?, for whom?,
or for what? after it. The answer is the indirect object.
Not all verbs are followed by objects. Consider the verbs in the
following sentences:
Verbs that take objects are known as transitive verbs. Verbs not
followed by objects are called intransitive verbs.
Direct Object
I hope the Senators win the next game.
No Direct Object
Did we win?
2.3. Complements
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Subject Complements
In addition to the transitive verb and the intransitive verb, there is a third
kind of verb called a linking verb. The word (or phrase) which follows a
linking verb is called not an object, but a subject complement.
The most common linking verb is "be." Other linking verbs are
"become," "seem," "appear," "feel," "grow," "look," "smell," "taste," and
"sound," among others. Note that some of these are sometimes linking
verbs, sometimes transitive verbs, or sometimes intransitive verbs,
depending on how you use them:
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Object Complements
In this case, as explained above, the adjective "tired" modifies the noun
"driver," which is the subject of the sentence.
In this case, the noun "driver" is the direct object of the verb "consider,"
but the adjective "tired" is still acting as its complement.
Paint it black.
The judge ruled her out of order.
I saw the Prime Minister sleeping.
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In every case, you could reconstruct the last part of the sentence into a
sentence of its own using a subject complement: "it is black," "she is out
of order," "the Prime Minister is sleeping."
2.4. Apposition
When two words, clauses, or phrases stand close together and share the
same part of the sentence, they are in apposition and are called
appositives.
subject complement
My brother is a research associate.
appositive
My brother the research associate works at a large polling firm.
subject complement
Jean became a magistrate.
appositive
I have never met Jean the magistrate.
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2.5. An Adjective
2.6. An Adverb
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5- He had given the girl an apple.
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Lesson Two
Nouns
A noun tells us what someone or something is called. It can be the name
of a person (John), a job title (physician), the name of a thing (ring), of
a place (London), of a quality (patience), of an action
(laughter/laughing). They are names we give to people, things, places,
etc. to identify them. Many nouns are used after a determiner, e.g. a, the,
this and often combine with other words to form a noun phrase: e.g. the
man, the man next door, that tall building. Nouns and noun phrases
answer the question who? and what? and may be:
-The subject of a verb
Our agent in Cairo sent a telex this morning.
- The direct object of a verb:
Frank sent an urgent telex from Cairo this morning.
- The indirect object of a verb:
Frank sent his boss a telex.
- The object of a preposition:
I read about it in the paper.
- The complement of be or a related verb like seem:
Jane is our guest.
- used 'in apposition':
Laura Myers, a BBC reporter, asked for an interview.
- used when we speak directly to somebody:
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Caroline, shut that window, will you please?
II. Common nouns: Any noun which is not the name of a particular
person, place, thing or idea is a common noun. We can use a/an, the or
the zero article in front of common nouns.
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the definite, indefinite and zero articles: a/an, the and ∅, or the
appropriate quantifier: a few, much, many, etc.
1- Countable nouns: they are sometimes known as unit or count nouns.
If a noun is countable:
- we can use a/an in front of it: a book, an envelope.
- it has a plural and can be used in the question How many?:
How many stamps/envelopes? – Four stamps/envelopes.
- we can use numbers: one stamp, two stamps.
2- Uncountable nouns: they are sometimes known as mass or non-count
nouns. If a noun is uncountable:
• we do not normally use a/an in front of it: sugar is expensive.
• it does not normally have a plural and it can be used in the
question How much? How much meat /oil? - A lot of
meat/ A little oil.
• we cannot normally use a number (one, two) in front of it.
Sometimes a noun is used uncountably when we are talking about the
whole substance or idea, but countably when we are talking about:
• Recognized containers for things. Compare:
I prefer tea to coffee. and Three teas (=cups of tea),
please.
• A type, brand of things. Compare:
and There were dozens of cheeses (= kinds of
cheese) to choose from.
• A particular example of a physical or concrete thing. Compare:
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She has blond hair. and There is a hair In
my soup.
Concrete and abstract nouns
Many countable nouns are concrete (having an individual physical
existence), for example:
Persons, animals, plants: a girl, a horse, a tree
Objects: a bottle, a desk, a typewriter.
Groups: an army, a crowd, a herd.
Units of measurement: a franc, a kilo, a metre.
Parts of a mass: a bit, a packet, a piece, a slice
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Compound nouns
Many nouns in English are formed from two parts (classroom) or, less
commonly, three or more (son-in-law, stick-in-the-mud). Sometimes,
compounds are spelled with a hyphen, sometimes not. They are usually
pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, but there are exceptions.
Single-word compound nouns:
There are many words which we no longer think of as compounds at all,
even though they are clearly made up of two words:
a 'cupboard, a 'raincoat, a 'saucepan, the 'seaside, a 'typewriter
Nouns formed with adjective + noun:
a 'greenhouse, a 'heavyweight, 'longhand, a 'redhead
Nouns formed with gerund + noun:
'drinking water, a 'frying pan, a 'walking stick
Here, the meaning is 'something that is used for doing something': e.g. a
frying pan (= a pan that is used for frying)
Nouns formed with noun + gerund
'horse-riding, 'sight-seeing, 'sunbathing
Here, the meaning is 'the action of…': horse-riding (= the action of
riding a horse).
Nouns formed with adverb particles
These compound nouns are combinations of verbs and adverb particles:
e.g. 'breakdown, 'income, 'make-up.
Nouns formed with noun + noun
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When two nouns are used together to form a compound noun, the first
noun (noun modifier) usually functions like an adjective and is nearly
always in the singular. This is the largest category of compound nouns.
A 'car key, a 'chair leg, a 'kitchen sink,
'London 'Airport, 'Moscow 'Stadium
Baker street, 'Canterbury 'Road
A 'Ford 'car, an 'IBM com'puter, 'Longman 'Books, 'Shell 'Oil
Plurals
The plural of a noun is usually made by adding 's' to the singular:
day, days dog, dogs house, houses
's' is pronounced /s/ after a p, k or f sound. Otherwise, it is pronounced
/z/.
When 's' is placed after ce, ge, se or ze an extra syllable /iz/ is added to
the spoken word.
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-- Nouns ending in y following a consonant form their plural by dropping
the y and adding ies:
baby, babies country, countries fly, flies lady, ladies
Nouns ending in y following a vowel form their plural by adding s:
boy, boys day, days donkey, donkeys guy,
guys
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− Certain verbs are always plural and take a plural verb:
Clothes police
Garments consisting of two parts:
Breeches pants pyjamas trousers etc.
and tools and instruments consisting of two parts:
binoculars pliers scissors spectacles
glasses scales shears etc
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- Some words which retain their Greek or Latin forms make their plurals
according to the rules of Greek or Latin:
crisis, crises /'kraisis/, /'krais:z/ phenomenon, phenomena
erratum, errata radius, radii
memorandum, memoranda terminus, termini
oasis, oases
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the children's room Russia's exports
• A simple apostrophe (') is used with plural nouns ending in s:
A girls' school the students' hostel
The eagles' nest the smiths' car
• Names ending in s can take 's or the apostrophe alone:
Mr. Jones's (or Mr. Jones' house) Yeats's (or Yeats' ) poems
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B. of + noun is used for possession:
• When the possessed noun is followed by a phrase or a clause:
The boys ran about, obeying the direction of a man with a whistle.
I took the advice of a couple I met on the train and I hired a car.
• With inanimate 'possessors', except those listed in A above:
The walls of the town the roof of the church the
keys of the car
However, it is often possible to replace noun X + of + noun Y by noun
Y + noun X in that order:
The town walls the church roof the car
keys
The first noun becomes a sort of adjective and is not made plural:
The roofs of the church = the church roofs .
Unfortunately, noun + of + noun combinations cannot always be
replaced in this way and the student is advised to use of when in doubt.
Exercises
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1- Mary used to keep……….in her garden in her garden until they
started to get out.
2- A score of 40% may not be very good but it is certainly………..on her
last mark.
3- After so many previous…………., it was inevitable that one of his
films would be unpopular.
4- …………is too short to, worry about keeping your house spotlessly
clean.
5- I have had ………….of green vegetables ever since I was a child.
6- Our students study both ………….and literature in their English
degree.
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Exercise 3: If necessary, correct these sentences. If they are already
correct, put a √.
1- Tony computers have been stolen.
2- When the teacher had called out the girl’s names, they all stepped
forward.
3- We had to study Charles Dicken’s early novels at school.
4- I went to the newsagent’s to buy a paper.
5- There were hundreds of bird’s nests in the trees.
6- They are my mother-in-law’s favourite sweets.
7- I took the books to Lewis’ house yesterday.
8- If they had been anyone else’s paintings I wouldn’t have gone to the
exhibition.
9- The worlds airline’s are moving towards a total ban on smoking.
10- The readers letters page in the newspaper is full of complaints about
the article.
11- I met a cousin of the duke of Edinburgh last week.
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9- An assay which is four pages long.
10- An issue of human rights.
1-‘John works for an airline. He doesn’t fly, but he’s one of the people
who work in the airport building.’ Ground staff.
2- ‘He works in town in that area where there are shops, but no cars or
buses are allowed to go’.
3- ‘During the sales in the shops, there are a lot of people looking to buy
things at low prices’
4- ‘It is someone I often exchange letters with, but I have never met.’
5- ‘We’re going on a holiday arranged by a travel company. It includes
accommodation, flights, and so on’.
6- ‘Portuguese is the first language I learned when I was a baby.’
7- ‘My friend can’t talk. He uses hand and body movements to show
what he means’.
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Lesson Three
Pronouns
A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns
like "he," "which," "none," and "you" to make your sentences less
cumbersome and less repetitive.
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Personal Possessi Reflexive
pronouns ves Pronouns
Subject Adjectives
Object Pronouns
I Me My Mine Myself
You you Your Yours Yourself
He Him His His Himself
Singular She Her Her Hers Herself
It It Its - Itself
one one (one's) - oneself
1. Personal Pronouns
I was glad to find the bus pass in the bottom of the green
knapsack.
You are surely the strangest child I have ever met.
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He stole the selkie's skin and forced her to live with him.
When she was a young woman, she earned her living as a coal
miner.
After many years, they returned to their homeland.
We will meet at the library at 3:30 p.m.
It is on the counter.
Are you the delegates from Malagawatch?
Seamus stole the selkie's skin and forced her to live with him.
The objective personal pronoun "her" is the direct object of the verb
"forced" and the objective personal pronoun "him" is the object of the
preposition "with."
After reading the pamphlet, Judy threw it into the garbage can.
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The agitated assistant stood up and faced the angry delegates and
said, "Our leader will address you in five minutes."
In this sentence, the pronoun "you" is the direct object of the verb
"address."
Here the objective personal pronoun "us" is the direct object of the
compound verb "will meet."
Here the objective personal pronoun "me" is the object of the preposition
"to".
Here the objective personal pronoun "her" is the object of the infinitive
phrase "to see."
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2. Possessive Personal Pronouns
This is yours.
In this example, the possessive pronoun "his" acts as the subject of the
sentence.
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Ours is the green one on the corner.
Here too the possessive pronoun "ours" function as the subject of the
sentence.
3. Demonstrative Pronouns
Here "this" is used as the subject of the compound verb "must not
continue."
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In this example "this" is used as subject and refers to something close to
the speaker. The demonstrative pronoun "that" is also a subject but refers
to something farther away from the speaker.
4. Interrogative Pronouns
You will find "who," "whom," and occasionally "which" used to refer to
people, and "which" and "what" used to refer to things and to animals.
"Who" acts as the subject of a verb, while "whom" acts as the object of a
verb, preposition, or a verbal.
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"Which" is the subject of the sentence.
Here the interrogative pronoun "whom " is the object of the preposition
"to."
Here the interrogative pronoun "what" is the direct object of the verb
"say."
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5. Relative Pronouns
You can use a relative pronoun is used to link one phrase or clause to
another phrase or clause. The relative pronouns are "who," "whom,"
"that," and "which." The compounds "whoever," "whomever," and
"whichever" are also relative pronouns.
You can use the relative pronouns "who" and "whoever" to refer to the
subject of a clause or sentence, and "whom" and "whomever" to refer to
the objects of a verb, a verbal or a preposition.
The candidate who wins the greatest popular vote is not always
elected.
In this sentence, the relative pronoun is the subject of the verb "wins"
and introduces the subordinate clause "who wins the greatest popular
vote". This subordinate clause acts as an adjective modifying
"candidate."
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In a time of crisis, the manager asks the workers whom she
believes to be the most efficient to arrive an hour earlier than
usual.
In this sentence "whom" is the direct object of the verb "believes" and
introduces the subordinate clause "whom she believes to be the most
efficient". This subordinate clause modifies the noun "workers."
The crate which was left in the corridor has now been moved
into the storage closet.
In this example "which" acts as the subject of the compound verb "was
left" and introduces the subordinate clause "which was left in the
corridor." The subordinate clause acts as an adjective modifying the
noun "crate."
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6. Indefinite Pronouns
Many were invited to the lunch but only twelve showed up.
Here "many" acts as the subject of the compound verb "were invited".
The office had been searched and everything was thrown onto
the floor.
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In this sentence, "everything" is the direct object of the verb "donated."
Here too the indefinite pronoun functions as a direct object: "none" is the
direct object of "found."
7. Reflexive Pronouns
You can use a reflexive pronoun to refer back to the subject of the
clause or sentence.
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Diabetics give themselves insulin shots several times a day.
The Dean often does the photocopying herself so that the
secretaries can do more important work.
After the party, I asked myself why I had faxed invitations to
everyone in my office building.
Richard usually remembered to send a copy of his e-mail to
himself.
Although the landlord promised to paint the apartment, we ended
up doing it ourselves.
8. Intensive Pronouns
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5- …………of your brothers works in this factory?
6- …………do you prefer, swimming or skiing?
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Exercise 4: Complete the following sentences using reciprocal
pronouns:
1- How long have Betty and Mary known ……….?
2- They often give ……….presents.
3- Those two are always copying ……….’s homework.
4- Our children always play by stealing …………toys.
5- Karen an Dave are deeply in love with……………
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